Now Available: The Prayer Project Journals!

www.theprayerproject.bigcartel.com

You see this beautiful journal in the picture above? These are the new #ThePrayerProject journals! I have been working on getting these made since late last year and they are finally here and available for purchase! Ahhh! I am so excited! :))

I designed these myself just for you! I wanted to create a simple journal that you can use to write your prayers in for the upcoming challenges. I'm in love with them. These are 5x7 soft cover journals with 40 blank pages inside. Each journal comes with a scripture on the inside cover and a special message from me on the inside back cover. 

I hope this makes your journal search easier! I know it can be a hassle finding new journals to do the challenges. Now you can get them right from The Prayer Project store!

They are currently available in two color combos and can be purchased at 

www.theprayerproject.bigcartel.com

for

only $6

. They will be sold at this price for only a limited time.

If you are participating in March's

The Prayer Project

next month, make sure you order them by February 21st to have them in time for the upcoming challenge. 

I hope you love them! Let me know what you think. More goodies coming soon.

Love.

The Prayer Project Challenge #6 Sign Up: "Showing Love When Hate Seems Easier"

It's easy to be angry. It's easy to feel rage and frustration when we are constantly seeing injustices take place. It's easy to judge situations when we are viewing from a limited perspective. It's easy to be enraged. But with these emotions we feel, we have a choice.

We can choose to let hate and bitterness fill our hearts as a result of the injustice we constantly see, we can yell, riot, and create chaos because of the hurt we feel, or we can take a more difficult yet productive route. We can channel all of that negative and hurtful energy, release it to God, who is in control of everything, let Him take vengeance and simply do what He asks of us. Love. Looking beyond the faults of our enemies and loving in spite of.

"Stop being angry and don’t try to take revenge. I am the Lord, and I command you to love others as much as you love yourself." - Leviticus 19:18 CEV

There it is right there. If we say we trust God, we should listen to what He says no matter how difficult it may seem. No matter how much we don't understand, we still have a responsibility to be obedient. Our Heavenly Father is all knowing and all powerful. He made us. Don't you think He knows what is happening down here on earth? Don't you know that He has a plan in all of this? Of course it hurts and of course we, with our limited perspectives and finite minds, can't fully understand, but God has a plan. Trust that.

In the year of 2015, let us to go into the new year with clean, pure hearts free of hate and rage and allow God to fulfill His promise to us - "Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,“I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord." - Romans 12:19 NLT

Join me in praying for our police officers, sheriffs, fire marshals, prosecutorial officers and judicial officers. With the world questioning their authority and decision making let us do what God asks of us and love them by placing them in His hands and lifting them up in prayer.

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Theme for January: Pray for a law enforcement officer.

How to Participate:

• Choose a law enforcement officer (that you may or may not know personally) that God places on your heart to dedicate 30 days of prayer to. Do not inform the person you are praying for that you are doing this.
• For 30 days, write one prayer a day as a journal entry. Keep them in a handwritten journal or type them and keep them in a folder on your computer.
• At the end of the 30 days, if you choose, present the person you were praying for with the prayer journal as a gift. Let them know that God placed them on your heart to lift them up in prayer and that you decided to pray for them with no hidden agenda or intent to receive anything in return. Make sure you are doing this as a pure and genuine act of love.

(Note: Each challenge theme changes, if however you already have someone in mind that you would like to pray for that doesn't fit the theme, please go ahead and pray for that person.)

Challenge #6 of The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge will begin January 1, 2015.
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If you are up for the challenge, sign up at the link below to let me know that you are joining. 

Make sure that you check your email and click the link to confirm your participation. 

Already signed up? Invite your friends to join you! Click here to tweet: I'm signed up for #ThePrayerProject 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge by @Saunyaaa. Wanna join me?

Sign Up For The Challenge HERE!

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T is for Touch...

"Hug me.

With your words

reaching my innermost

where your arms just can't." 

- Saunya

Intimacy is subjective. 

You know that warm, fiery rush you get in the deep of your chest when something resonates with you? That familiar feeling that makes your eyes widen and your heart feel like it just grew an inch?

When I finally realized what had the ability to give me this feeling, I wanted more and more of it. I wanted it all the time. I couldn't get enough of it. I needed it.

I needed words.

Soul words. Heart words. Uplifting words. Honest, true and genuine words. Affirming, positive, life giving words. I needed meaningful exchanges and honest interactions.

Hearing the words, “I love you” meant the world to me. And hearing the reasons why sent my spirits spiraling.

And amazingly, for the longest time, I hadn't a clue that this was part of me. It wasn't until I began to take the time to learn my incredibly complex makeup that I understood why this was important to me.

Growing up a timid and quiet child, I found it hard to make connections with my peers. Very little moved me. I had no idea why I didn't have many friends or couldn't connect with others like I wanted. I was longing for meaning and didn't know it at the time. I was afraid to truly open up and expose a part of me that I hadn't even accepted yet. I was afraid to pour out of me what I possibly couldn't get back in return. So I remained quiet and bothered. Not living my truth. Not being who I was created to be. Not allowing myself to touch or be touched. I was numb…for years.

So I lived, battling with my true self, trying to understand why so much and so little affected me. I brushed off a lot and labeled it as me being “too sensitive” or “caring too much” and even as me being “too emotional”, not realizing that I was dismissing what God specifically placed right in the core of me.

How could I dismiss what God purposely placed inside of me? How could I fight with myself, with my being… a battle I could never win?

It wasn't until recently…like last year recently…that I learned that “words of affirmation” was my love language. Sincere, transparent words and expression had the ability to stir up in me what physical touch just couldn't come close.

It took me years to understand the power that words had on me. It's like they had hands. Each word formulated out of the mouth of the speaker somehow had the power to hit me right in the heart. 

As a child, my parents would scold me for something I did wrong and I would crumble. A peer would express displeasure in me and I would shrink. I couldn't comprehend how others could brush off slanders and I just couldn't. Each word stuck, sometimes leaving me shattered. 

Stick and stones may break my bones but words...COULD hurt me. Just as much, if not more. 

How is it that the one thing that lifted me the most could also hurt me the most?

It all began to make sense.

This is why I have found a safe haven in writing. Maybe this is why words have become the ultimate form of my heart's expression. The very thing that had the power to hurt me has become my gift to this world. It has become my link, my connection. It became what God placed in me to touch the hearts of others.

Wow.

Intimacy is subjective. What God carefully placed inside of me to connect with others is different from anyone else. When I realized that my need to express myself and share my feelings didn't make me weak and that I needed to have those close to me do the same, I was finally honest with myself. I accepted that this is just what I need. It’s who I am.

You know what sets your soul on fire. That one thing that leaves you longing for more. That one thing that fuels you. That one thing that feeds that desire in your heart. That wasn't placed in you merely for your pleasure. It was placed inside of you to share; to create a ripple effect. It was divinely planned that the very thing that sets your soul ablaze would be the sure way you would be able to reach others.

Don’t ignore it. Listen to it.

Your heart is quietly yelling at you, begging for attention. If you are like me, I know you can feel that gentle tug in your soul when it's rising up. And you often exhale that deep sigh of exhaustion from constantly suppressing what matters most to you.

Explore it. Ask God to open your eyes and connect the dots.That is your gift. Someone needs what you have. Share it. You could touch the world.

Love.

This post is part of

The Layers of Self-Discovery Tour

 created by GG Renee of

All the Many Layers

.  Follow the tour through the blogs of 26 women exploring the complexities of womanhood and self-discovery from A to Z.  

Click here to keep up with each post

 and enter to win a giveaway package full of goodies for your mind, body and soul.  

#LayersAtoZTour

One of my first loves...Poetry

soul cries

no one listens

heart repaired

like gold sitting on a mine

not seen

not searched for

trying to maintain its glisten

soul cries

won't you listen

"soul cries" 

- Saunya

I write poetry often. I swear I have poems scattered everywhere...in my phone, in my journals, in my desktop, on my tumblr, on my instagram...

Poetry was one of the first creative outlets that I was introduced to early in my childhood. I was an innocent 11 years old when I was introduced to poetry. I instantly fell in love with it. As a shy and quiet child who had trouble expressing herself, poetry became my favorite form of expression. It really saved me. It gave me a way to put what I couldn't quite articulate verbally into written form. I surprisingly still have every poem I have ever written since I was 11 years old in my possession. I treasure each one of them. They each vividly paint pictures of where I was emotionally and mentally in my life. It captures my journey beautifully.

Anyway, I recently have been trying to decide if I wanted to share my poetry here on my blog. Since a lot of my poems reflect my hidden and revealed trues, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to do this. I decided that this gift that God gave me was meant to be shared so... this will be a new section on my blog! All of my poems that I post will be original pieces of mine. I also will occasionally post poetry from other writers that have inspired me.

I'm so excited to be adding this to my blog! You all will get to see another facet of me and my love for creative expression in written form.

Love.

Clean It Up!

--

Early one Saturday morning before having his breakfast, little Bobby snuck in the kitchen grabbed three chocolate chip cookies and ate them in his bed leaving chocolate stains and crumbs all over his sheets.

Later that day, he taunted his little sister and shoved her, making her cry.

A little later on, he grabbed an egg from the refrigerator and threw it at the neighbor’s window.

When his parents found out all these things he had done, they were so disappointed in Bobby. Unapologetic, Bobby rolled his eyes and sneered not feeling any remorse or guilt for what he had done.

Later that evening, Bobby, his little sister and parents went to the store to pick up dinner. Not having yet dealt with Bobby, his parents allowed him to tag along.

Bobby sees a toy race car that he really wants.

“Mom!” Bobby screams.

“I want this! I REALLY want this! Please, please, please!!”

Bobby’s Mother glanced at Bobby knowing that she wasn't buying him anything because of his recent behavior.

“Please Mom! Pleeeeeaaase!”

Bobby got louder and louder and began to make a scene. Bobby’s Dad grabbed him and started walking him toward the exit. Bobby was consistent in asking for the toy car until they walked out of the store. He pouted all the way home because he didn't get what he wanted.
--
This is exactly what we do to God. ALL the time.

We, a lot of times, are oblivious to our sin, not realizing that God wants to deal with the sin in our hearts before he grants us our desires. Yet we beg and plead, fuss and complain because we are not getting the things we want, not even realizing that there is a bigger issue at hand. Our hearts.

Can you imagine God shaking His head at us as we beg for what we want when He can clearly see what’s truly in our hearts? Can you imagine how much more God wants to clean our hearts than merely giving us with the things we are begging for?

We forget that just like Bobby’s parents, God sees our hearts. He knows our motive. Not only does He hear us when we ask Him, but He knows WHY we are asking Him. And just like a loving parent, He knows that correcting and shaping our character is much more important than giving us everything we want.

God is not in the business of making sure we have pleasurable lives, He is in the business of our hearts. He is in the business of shaping and molding our hearts to be a reflection of His. He is in the business of breaking us until we realize our dire need for Him. And because He loves us, He works endlessly on transforming our desires into His desires for us.

This past month, God showed this to me clearly. And once I realized that I was acting just like Bobby, begging and pleading with God for my selfish desires without acknowledging the sin in my heart, I felt so convicted. I realized what I was doing was wrong, and I began to notice that God wanted so much more for me than what I was asking Him for.

This realization pierced my heart so much that I actually prayed and asked God not to grant me my desires until my heart is clean and clear of any mess that will get in the way of the joy I will have when He lovingly grants me what He has in store for me.

Now that is definitely a risky and scary prayer to pray, but I want God to know how serious I am. I no longer want to walk in oblivion to my sinful actions. I no longer want to hurt people in the process. My heart is a construction zone and only God alone can help me clean it up.

So when the time comes and God begins to pour out blessings on me, I want my heart to be free and clear, open and ready to receive all that He has in store for me. Until then, “clean up on aisle 9!”

Love.

Reference Scriptures:

"Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me -- now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me." - Psalm 51:7-10 (NLT)

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires." - Psalm 37:4 (NLT)

"I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!" - Malachi 3:10 (NLT)